Sundaram Home Finance to double number of branches giving small biz loans

Sundaram Home Finance, the wholly-owned subsidiary of non-banking finance company Sundaram Finance, plans to double its small business loans (SBL) branch count to over 20 in the first half of the new financial year.

In October last year, the company made a foray into the small business loans segment to lend up to Rs 20 lakh to small businesses in Tier 3 and 4 towns to support their expansion and working capital requirements. Since the launch, the company has opened over ten exclusive SBL branches in small towns such as Arupukkottai, Rasipuram, Krishnagiri and Theni, in addition to Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem and Tirunelveli.

Sundaram Home Finance is a leading player in the housing finance sector, offering home loans, plot loans, home improvement and extension loans and loans against property. On the initial phase of its foray, Lakshminarayanan Duraiswamy, MD, Sundaram Home Finance, said, “We have had positive feedback from small businesses across the locations and are excited about the prospects of this opportunity.”

On the expansion plans, Lakshminarayanan said, “Buoyed by the customer response, we are now planning to expand into more than ten locations in Tier 3 and 4 towns in TN over the next six months. We are hopeful of penetrating deep into the remote towns to finance and support the growth of smaller businesses in the state. This will double our branch count to over 20 in the small business loans segment.”

The company has hired around 100 people exclusively for this segment in the last six months and plans to hire another 100 in the first half of the new financial year. The company, which has around 110 branches, registered a net profit of Rs 53 crore in the third quarter that ended December on disbursements of Rs 986 crore.